Para leer este mensaje en Español, por favor visita:http://eepurl.com/bl6v75In celebration of 10 years of service, PASOs is proud to share the sixth in a series of ten stories highlighting our work in South Carolina. We invite you to share your own PASOs story via our Facebook page.
Alma's Story
In 2011, Alma was taking English classes offered through Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach on John’s Island. There she met former PASOs Program Coordinator Romina McCandless, who was facilitating workshops about healthy lifestyles with Latino community members. Romina recognized Alma’s leadership ability and invited her to be a promotora (Community Health Worker) and work with her peers and neighbors in a more official capacity within the community.
PASOs’ Promotores initiative began in 2009 in the Midlands with grants from The Duke Endowment and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. When the program expanded to Charleston in 2012, Alma was among the first to complete the assets-based training. Promotores work with their neighbors to promote health and education, while building relationships between health and social service providers in the area and their Latino communities.
Through her work as a promotora, Alma has developed skills including how to organize outreach festivals, how to prepare and conduct meetings, how to do radio-based education, and how to speak in public. She also has been able to learn about her rights and about the resources available in the area. Alma feels like it is vital for the Latino community to have more information, but also that health providers understand the culture and opinions of the Latino community.
Alma plans to complete a GED program and continue to volunteer with PASOs. Ultimately, she hopes that the skills and knowledge that she has gained as a promotora will lead to job opportunities where she can continue to serve her Latino neighbors.
We are thrilled to announce
that PASOs raised $7,650 in donations on May 5 through Midlands Gives!
Thank you so much for helping us reach our goal!
PASOs is a community-based organization whose vision is a healthy South Carolina with a healthy Latino community. PASOs provides education, family support services, organizational capacity building and community leadership development.
